I’ve recently been working on a little piece of software for my own use which lets me get a fast & loose overview of my finances with a bit of forecasting thrown in. My system has a high tolerance to gaps in the data because sometimes I just want to type in the balance from my latest bank statement rather than enter each item individually. Obviously the more data you give the system, the more acurate the information returned is.

I had thought about spinning this into an online application, and then I found out about Mint and BudgetPulse. These both appear to be entering this online personal finance management arena so I’ve signed up to try out each of them and see if they will stand up to my slap-dash accounting practices.

As I can only judge by the design and functionality of the holding sites so-far, I have to give the lead to Mint, however BudgetPulse may have a less polished presence at the moment because they’re piling all of their efforts into building the best application. Only time will tell.